26 THE DECENTRALISATION 



when we can get, with much less pain, moun- 

 tains of corn from India, America, Hungary, or 

 Russia, meat from New Zealand, vegetables 

 from the Azores, apples from Canada, grapes 

 from Malaga, and so on ? " exclaim the West 

 Europeans. " Already now," they say, " our 

 food consists, even in modest households, of 

 produce gathered from all over the globe. Our 

 cloth is made out of fibres grown and wool 

 sheared in all parts of the world. The prairies 

 of America and Australia ; the mountains and 

 steppes of Asia ; the frozen wildernesses of the 

 Arctic regions ; the deserts of Africa and the 

 depths of the oceans ; the tropics and the lands 

 of the midnight sun are our tributaries. All races 

 of men contribute their share in supplying us 

 with our staple food and luxuries, with plain 

 clothing and fancy dress, while we are sending 

 them in exchange the produce of our higher in- 

 telligence, our technical knowledge, our powerful 

 industrial and commercial organising capacities ! 

 Is it not a grand sight, this busy and intricate 

 exchange of produce all over the earth which 

 has suddenly grown up within a few years ? " 



Grand it may be, but is it not a mere night- 

 mare ? Is it necessary ? At what cost has it 

 been obtained, and how long will it last ? 



Let us turn a hundred years back. France 

 lay bleeding at the end of the Napoleonic wars. 



